Language 2-minute read

Two sounds take each other’s places.

An 1898 caricature of William Archibald Spooner at a lectern.

Switching sounds between words can turn a sentence into an unintended joke. Explore a familiar speech slip and the linguistic pattern behind it.

Source: Wikipedia

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Published in Vanity Fair , 21 April 1898, as "Men of the Day" Number 711. Downloaded from http://www.antiquemapsandprints.com/scansj/j-20476.jpg

Creator: Leslie Ward

Original imagePublic domain

Resized and converted to WebP for display. Display frames may crop the image; the full image remains available in Image credit.

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